Haystack Coal Mine shuts down

Posted: Monday, Apr 8th, 2013BY: Matt Roberts, Herald Managing Editor

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EVANSTON — The new Haystack Coal Mine project north of Evanston has been shut down — even before it, or the road under construction to reach it — could be completed. County officials hope the shutdown is only temporary, however.

“The coal market is very, very soft,” Uinta County Economic Development Director Dell Atkinson told the Herald. “It’s off about 11 percent from last year. They’ve got more coal than they can use right now; their inventory is high.”

Atkinson said parent company Kiewit Mining plans to shut down the work on the mine, which had not yet begun production, only temporarily, to see where the coal industry moves. He also said some of the workers at the site would likely be relocated to other Kiewit operations.

“I’m hoping this is just a temporary thing, and I think it is,” Atkinson said, “and I think they think it is, too. We’re going to have to watch it and see where it goes.”

Construction on the road to the site, which was paid for by the county and through state grants, was begun Sept. 12, 2012, and is expected to be completed by June.

Atkinson told the Herald in an earlier interview Kiewit had expected to employ 100 Uinta County residents at the mine, generate $5 million in wages and benefits annually, along with severance and production taxes totaling $3 million, and provide the county with an annual revenue recapture of $1.7 million. The mine was expected to produce up to 1.5 millions tons of coal.

A call to parent company Kiewit Mining had not been returned as of press time.